Clash of Dogma [KYO][DEATH ENABLED]

[kyouzou]

“What!?” The fused being yelled as he felt something strike his back. It did not feel like anything too sharp, but there was a lot of force behind whatever hit them. Due to still being airborne, the force of the attack flipped the hybrid, head forward. The armor they wore reduced some of the damage, but it was cracked upon being hit by the attack. Within the moment that their body did the front flip, they took note of the snake that had hit them, but they were quickly assailed by another attacker.

From within the snake, that was previously in front of them, came another one of the snakes. ((For the record, they’re not positioned with their legs up and their head facing what would have been behind them.)) They had turned their head to see it and also to notice that one of the snakes disappeared. ‘They can move through one another?’ They asked themselves as they were shocked by the incoming attack. ((Samantha would be snapping at the upper part of their body now because of the flip.))

The Bount shifted their arms so as to defend from behind. The force of the snakes attack hit the katana and pushed the Bount further up into the air by its force. There was a slight crack to be heard from one of their arms due to the strain of defending from behind. They then noticed that the boss was trying to make an offensive on them. They took the katana that were raised to defend and slashed at him, sending more golden bolts of energy at the snake in front (Well, behind) them. Three of the intended bolts flew forward towards the two snakes (Samantha and Loki), but the Bount found discovered a complication.

By moving to defend from behind so quickly with their katana, and moving their arms awkwardly in the process of doing so, they had caused some damage to the joint of their one arm. As they attempted to swing with it, they were interrupted by a sudden shot of pain through the arm ((Going with upper left arm on this one)). With the attackers held off, the Bount flipped their body back around, as they descended to the ground.

[Empty]

As Jun collided with the merged being, it spun under the force of the blow and Gertrude's attempted attack had to be redirected, as such her attack was readily blocked by the 'man,' instead of causing any real damage it instead made an easier task of avoiding Loki's own attempted body slam. As the man spun in the air he slashed his blades towards Loki and Samantha; yet unlike the four blades before only three were produced as it seemed the man had aborted one of the attacks – perhaps seeking to keep it in reserve should his other attacks fail.

Samantha awkwardly dove downwards, underneath the blade of energy as she sought to increase her pace – yet her movement was a trifle too late and the right hand side of her protruding hood was severed, almost cleanly in line with the rest of the vertical tail. The result was that rather than speeding up as she dove, she instead almost slammed into the ground before regaining her speed, gel that had been set aside for reinforcing attacks was already flowing into the area to instead repair the damage.

Loki on the other hand, had faired a little better, swaying to the side he avoided one blast and attempted to avoid the second, though it quickly became apparent he would be unable to dodge both completely, even with his superior speed. With the Nameless already wrapped around his upper body and his own gel defences, Loki instead gambled on their own strength; sending reiatsu to the gel he hardened it significantly just before the moment of impact.

Unlike the earlier damage, Loki had been prepared for the forceful impact this time and the momentarily increased strength of the twin layers of gel proved more of a deterrent than had the four layers of unprepared gel earlier. This time as the golden blade of energy sliced into the area several inches to the right from where Loki's neck met the hood, the gel began to diffuse much of the force, each successive layer taking less damage than had the one previous; yet when it reached the scales it was still far more powerful than Loki had anticipated, cutting into the flesh and scoring a bloody gash in the muscles there.

Technique Used: Loki - Gel Fleisch Reparieren (Gel Flesh Repair) and Gel Keim (Gel Seed)

Loki snarled wordlessly in pain the painful slash to their upper hood would not be tolerated. As the blood dribbled out of the wound, Loki pushed some of the gel within, which worked itself into the crevice, replacing damaged tissue and joining up the severed parts to accelerate their body's high speed regeneration. As the initial driblets of blood leaked out, he allowed a small portion to mix with gel and his reiatsu, forming another gel seed which he directed towards the fallen Nameless snake which still hung down limply from midway down his abdomen. As the seed reached the damaged snake it unfurled into numerous roots of gel pulsing with reiatsu and repaired the damage to the snake's head in quick order.

As the man landed Loki thought he saw a trace of discomfort, 'Perhaps rather than holding back the attack for collateral, he has managed to injure himself or there may be some other limitation to the technique.' Gertrude wriggled free of Loki and took a place ten feet towards his right, even as Samantha moved sluggishly towards his left. With Jun taking a place nearly twenty feet dorwards and to the right, Tony positioned himself in a similar position to the left as the snakes sought to trap the man between them, surrounding all possible exits even as the amount of gel available continued to mount with Loki distributing it amongst all eight of the snakes including himself.

(OOC: Current Distribution of Gel (note that instead of producing gel for the entire round I have taken it as one second of creation per round because I noticed a problem in the formula)
Tony – 140; Samatha – 120; Nameless (Loki's left) – 140; Loki – 180; Nameless (Central) – 140; Nameless (Loki's right) – 135; Jun – 170;

Severed Hood – 20; Severed Jaw – 5; Severed Tail – 50

Total 1200 = 800 (original) + 400 (over 10 rounds where it was being made) )

[kyouzou]

The Bount, having descended back to the ground, now observed the area around them. For a moment, it seemed to them as if they bestowed a major blow on their hollow opponents, but it promptly became apparent that that was not the case. The two noticed the boss snake and the others all performing some form of manipulation of the substance. It quickly became clear that their goals with the movement of it were to start a generation mechanism. ‘We cannot keep up with them if they regenerate,’ they thought, as they looked for a way to defeat their current foe.

The merged beings looked around them to see that the snakes were surrounding them. On all sides, the snakes have covered and it was clear that they would not be letting their prey to leave. They then tried to move their injured limb again; they confirmed what they expected, it might have been dislocated during the attack. ‘Why did that have to happen at a time like this!’ They thought as their fear of the situation grew.

No longer were the two certain that they were going to win; no matter how much of an advantage they had at the start, there were just too many opponents. Not only that, but they realized that, against an opponent so close in strength to them, the introduction of a regeneration ability severely reduced their chances of victory. ‘Enkidu, you don’t want to run away, right?’ Gilgamesh mentally asked his doll. ‘Like hell I would!’ The previously larger male replied. “We might as well go all out then.” They said as they stared down their opponents.

The two once again placed their legs in position to start up a dash. They ran at the boss, just like earlier, intending to take down their real opponent. The whole time they ran, they proceeded to swing their katana, at each of the surrounding snakes, multiple times, sending out numerous golden bolts. ((2 towards Gertrude, 1 towards Samantha, 1 towards each of the other 3; the other swings flew off into the distance.)) Once they were close enough, they jumped up and swung all 4 katana, ignoring the pain in their arm, at the boss.

[Empty]

As the being sprinted towards Verlassen's host body, he once again began flailing his arms, about towards the surrounding snakes; yet even amidst the fireworks, Loki could not over look the fact that the four armed man was not moving the upper of it's two left arms, it was looking more and more like a true injury – or perhaps a cleverly thought out ruse, though Loki was finding that more and more difficult to believe. As golden blades of energy slashed towards the gel snakes, Loki realised quickly that the creature seemed less focused on causing them real harm but rather keeping the snakes occupied, unable to come to his own assistance.

In that effort the four armed man was more successful than Loki anticipated, Gertrude managed to evade the first of the blades, yet in doing so, the slightly delayed second blade smacked directly into the middle of her hood, inflicting a horizontal slash that almost severed the hood completely from the tail. Samantha who was surging along near the ground, still slightly sluggish from her earlier mishap was barely able to twist her head out of the way, and the golden blade struck her solidly, carving a three foot trench lengthways down her tail, much like filleting a fish.

Jun too was caught off guard, having expected their quarry to falter, the Shinto Priest had perhaps allowed his leniency to show – despite Loki's instructions to the contrary, yet the priest managed to send a surge of the extra gel to the area in time, instead of a deep scar the gel only tore slightly, knocking him off balance and to the side a little.

The Nameless on Loki's left on the other hand managed to smoothly dodge the blast aimed at him, in large part due to Loki shifting their weight to the right, allowing the snake to sway more easily, using their own speed to augment that of the snake's. Yet in doing so, the Nameless to their right had a tougher time of it, its head splitting open like an overripe tomato as the golden energy surged through the gel layer.

Technique Use: Nameless (left & central) – Espiga, shorter more durable spikes ; Loki - Contraiga and Ensanchar

As the figure drew nearer it leapt upwards, slashing at Loki himself, with not three but all four blades, there was a slight moment of hesitation as Loki realised the ploy the man had played, yet the Nameless controlled gel seed wrapped around them bristled with spikes. Meanwhile Loki increased the amount of gel covering their head and hood, ingesting several liters as they contracted their tail slightly and then quickly extending it's length to send them directly into the path of the airborne man – their spiked defences bristling as they looked to ram their opponent at great speed.

Around them the other snake's began repairing their wounds, Tony, who had escaped the previous pyrotechnic display unharmed, began preparing to charge a reddish brown cero – ready to unleash the blast on the area – knowing that even were both the attacker and Loki struck, even were the Gel protection breached, the high speed regenerative capabilities that Verlassen had would tip the battle heavily in their favour. Still, to minimise the danger, Tony would wait until just before the man landed, whenever that might be; or until it was at least temporarily immobilized - then he would strike without mercy, until then he quickly maneuvered himself, doing his best to keep a clear line with the opponent.

[kyouzou]

‘Wonder what they’ll do now! Hahaha’ Enkidu mentally projected to Gilgamesh. The fused creature was proud at their handy work, sure that they had placed the snakes in great disarray. It was not yet apparent to them how much of a difference that the regenerative property and the snakes number made, up until now. As their blasts flew towards the boss, they realized something all too soon. The boss had formed spikes on its body and it didn’t take a genius to know what it intended to do with them. Before the hybrid knew what happen, they had been hit by the creature.

They attempted to block the attack with their katana, but the previously injured arm quickly gave out. Another injury was also sustained, a flash of pain made its way through his other upper arm. In short, both of their upper arms had been gravely injured. They still tried to defend, the pain arousing every nerve in their body. One large shot of pain moved up the first injured arm; it was too much and they lost their grip on the katana and it fell aside.

It only got worse then, as the high-speed loss of the katana resulted in the snakes attack hitting their arm. The further pain resulted in the other arm losing hold of its katana. By the time the snake boss had returned to its position, the two had been dismantled of two of their katana and knocked back to the earth where they lost their footing and ended up earthbound on their knees.

The two mentally winced in pain, unsure of what just happened. It was all too apparent that the fight was no longer going in their favor. They tried to move their one arm, nothing; the other could be moved, but the muscle was assumed to be torn in multiple places. They looked forward, to see the two katana lying apart where they landed.

The two brought their selves to their feet again. Knowing that it was probably soon to be their end, they pushed off with their leg and tried for one more dash at the enemy..

[Empty]

Loki was ecstatic at how well it had gone, in truth the Yamata no Orochi form seemed to offer each individual snake less opportunities for hand to hand combat, yet the more subtle movements of the form were often its most powerful and effective. That had certainly been the case this time, it had been Gertrude's attack on the creature after passing through Loki's own form which had paved the way for Loki's follow-up.

Despite the four armed man's attempted block, the growing disparity between the two had been instantly apparent, the earlier damage causing the man's defenses to crumble before Loki's blow, two of the blades were sent flying in a spray of blood that sent the figure to it's knees, managing to push itself to its feet, the man began running towards Loki once more, yet the delay had been exactly what Tony had been waiting for, the ever opportunistic former sneak thief unleashing a concentrated beam of dark reddish brown reiatsu at the injured man.

Technique Use: Tony – Cero; overcharged version

The beam shook slightly in the air as it blasted into the area just as the man began his first steps, around them, Loki and the other snakes began quickly charging their own blasts as each quickly gathered a lighter reddish brown ball at their snouts, seven lighter, thinner beams quickly followed the first blast, peppering the entire field between the snakes rather than focusing on just the one area.

Technique Use: Loki, Jun, Gertrude, Samantha and two Nameless (third is still out of action) – Cero; quick charged version

[kyouzou]

The Bount noticed the snakes, around them, charging up their red spheres of death. They now wished that they never tracked the hollow, but they accepted the results all the same. To them it was there fault for their loss for they were too weak to do anything about it. There were many changes that they could have made, but didn't and those things cost them. They should have thought out their attacks more and they should not have had put as much pride into themselves as they did.

The two attempted to continue towards their target, they wanted to attempt at one more attack. As they ran towards it, they tried to pick up the dropped katana. In the motion to do so, they had dropped back to their knees. It was over, the ceros came flying at them. They had no longer the means to defend themselves. 'It was fun' They thought as they felt the intense pain that was the offensives hitting their body.

Wounds now covered the body of the two; it was hard for them to move their body. They tried to get up, but their body wouldn't respond. All they now felt was pain and then~~

[Empty]

Loki stalked forwards cautiously; yet at the same time Samantha darted in, savaging at their body as she grabbed both of their right arms in her mouth, tearing them off despite their vain struggles. The creature cried out in pain and grabbed at the wound with their other arms - with a flash of annoyance Loki flicked Verlassen's tail into the figure's head, knocking it out instantly. 'There was no need for that,' Loki stated tersely, irritated at Samantha's brutality, 'it was already defeated, there is no need to cause it additional pain.'

"They are our enemy though," Samantha said with the slightest of grins as blood dripped across her gel jaws, "remember? That means they are fair game!" Her words rang true to many of the souls of Verlassen and Loki realised it would be a considerable argument to win them over, for now at least consuming their prey took precedence.

Technique Used: Loki -> Consumir (Consume) - > Bount: Age Maintenance & Doll: Reishi Consumption

As they finished their meal, Loki felt strange; it was unlike any of their other means in the past, despite how filling the meal had been, the amount of energy they had used was extensive and they still felt very hungry. After quickly gathering the gel snakes together he finally used the costume that he had prepared in the battle, before their opponent had been wounded; the eight snakes quickly flowed together, though the one previously inhabited by the damaged Nameless needed to be controlled by Loki. Wrapping themselves around Loki much of the mass of gel wrapped around his torso, rapidly forming four large tiger like legs and a tanuki body, their head reshaped to resemble a gorilla while a three inch thick covering of gel covered their natureally snakey tail.

Technique Used: Loki -> Gel Kostum (Gel Costume) -> Nue (pre-prepared) & Garganta

Tearing open a hole in the air to reveal a torrent of dark, swirling energy, Loki stepped within and soon emerged within Huecco Mundo. Starving, they desperately hunted about for prey, yet meals were scarce and Loki was both tired and hungry; sitting down for a moment on their hind quarters, Loki yearned for something to eat, even as he hungered, something strange happened. The sand that he was sitting on began to slowly dissolve, replaced by tiny little particles of golden light which floated up to surround Loki and then sunk within him, infusing his body, diminishing his hunger, increasing his vitality and replenishing his reiryoku.

"Wha- What the hell is this?" Loki managed in surprise, before the memories and knowledge of Gilgamesh and Enkidu came bubbling up in his mind, the pair were known as a Bount and it's Doll, similar to a Shinigami and their Zanpakutou; and the two had been capable of this feet only in Soul Society where the concentration of Reishi or spiritual matter was high, it seemed the same held true for Huecco Mundo, although the pair had never been there before; in the Human Realm they had not been able to use the ability, for the human realm was made predominately of Kishi or physical matter.

Now it seemed Loki too had this ability; the amazed expression on his face slowly subsided, to be replaced by a thoughtful look. 'Doesn't this mean we do not have to hunt at all?' The possible implications of their new ability were startling, a hollow who did not have to eat other souls.